What’s In A Sprinklered Commercial Space?

What’s In A Sprinklered Commercial Space?

Often more than not – your commercial space will be equipped with sprinklers (hence the term “sprinklered”.

There are 5 types of sprinkler systems:

[1] A Dry Pipe Sprinkler System is a fire-protection system which utilizes water as an extinguishing agent. The system piping from the Dry Pipe Valve to the fusible sprinklers is filled with pressurized air or nitrogen. An air check system is a small dry system that is di­rectly connected to a wet pipe system. The air check system uses a dry valve and an air supply, but does not have a separate alarm. The alarm is provided by the main alarm valve.

[2] A wet pipe sprinkler system is fixed fire protection using piping filled with pressurized water supplied from a dependable source. Closed heat sensitive automatic sprinklers spaced and located in accordance with recognized installation standards are used to de­tect a fire. Upon operation, the sprinklers distribute the water over a specific area to control or extinguish the fire. As the water flows through the system, an alarm is activated to indicate the system is operating. Only those sprinklers immediately over or adjacent to the fire operate, minimizing water damage.

[3] A Deluge System is a fixed fire-protection system which totally floods an area with pressurized water through a system of piping and open nozzles or sprinklers. The system piping is empty until the deluge valve is activated by a hydraulic, pneumatic, electric or manual release system.

[4] The firecycle sprinkler system shall be of the open sprinkler head deluge design. The deluge system shall be designed to limit the damage, which may be caused by excessive water flow. The deluge system shall be completely automatic and be designed for on/off operation. The method of detection shall be fixed temperature, self-restoring heat detectors. The on/off operation shall cycle when heat detector senses heat regeneration, when detector cools and restores, system operation shall cease. Water flow shall be controlled through a 90° pattern or straight through pattern, spring aided flow control valve. Once system has operated, a strobe and alarm shall be activated at the control panel. The strobe and alarm will not deactivate until system is manually reset to normal operation.

[5] ESFR sprinklers are designed to release 2-3 times the amount of water of conventional sprinkler heads and to emit larger droplets of water, which in turn have a greater momentum than droplets emitted from conventional heads. As a result more water and a greater share of the water reaches the fire allowing the flames to be extinguished.